The Ministry of Civil Affairs sent a team to Central China's Hunan Province on Friday to investigate a reported cover-up of the death toll and the number of people missing in floods caused by Typhoon and Tropical Storm Bilis.

In an urgent notice released on Friday, the ministry sent an urgent notice instructing local departments to spare no efforts to find out the real disaster situation.

China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Thursday that Pingshi town in Zixing city had covered up the death toll and the number of missing people.

The CCTV reporter learnt that Kuncun village had reported 54 people dead or missing in the flood on July 15. But on Thursday, the dead and missing count reported by Pingshi town, of which Kuncun village is part, remained at 39. It is only one-third of the number of dead and missing that CCTV found through investigation.

"The statistics shocked me, too," said Zhao Baojun, an official with the ministry whose job is to gather data such as a death toll, a count of missing people and economic losses for disasters such as this.

The investigation team sent to Hunan was expected to arrive on Friday evening.

Besides Hunan Province, teams have also been sent to the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Guangdong and Fujian provinces, which also suffered huge losses from Bilis. "We will give the public a detailed report about the result of our investigations," said an official who gave only his surname as Zhang and said he was in charge of disaster relief in the ministry.

"The report will be so detailed that people can know the names of people who died or were missing in the flood," Zhang said.

Asked to verify the report about Pingshi town, Zhang said that local civil affairs departments had encountered many difficulties because of the flooding, which shut down transportation and telecommunications in many villages.

"We will find out the truth on Saturday and announce it to the public," he said.

Those who are responsible for covering up the death toll and the number of missing people will be held accountable, the ministry's notice said.

As of Friday's information, Bilis, which hit Fujian as a typhoon on July 14 and weakened to a tropical storm later the same day, had influenced 28.3 million people. At least 482 people had died either because of the storm itself or the resulting floods, according to reports by the Xinhua News Agency.

Source: China Daily